Letters to the Editor: When we set out to build peace, we are all apprentices

One reader reflects on the meaning of the late Gerald Goldberg's work in terms of the North and Palestine, while others consider issues including sport, religion, and politics

Cork's first Jewish lord mayor Gerald Goldberg pictured in 1977. Irish Examiner Archive 

Many tributes are paid to the late Gerald Goldberg in a series of essays in Gerald Goldberg — A Tribute (edited by Dermot Keogh and Diarmuid Whelan, Mercier Press 2008). In one, Jack Phelan writes: “Following his days at UCC, Gerald was apprenticed to a Cork solicitor. Nowadays, the term ‘apprentice’ has fallen out of favour in the corridors of the Law Society, and young people who aspire to be solicitors are encouraged to call themselves ‘trainee solicitors’ — which in my opinion they are not.”

I was lucky to have spent some of my apprenticeship in the 1960s on block-release courses attending the then-newly opened School of Furniture in St John’s Rectory in 1963, across from the Victoria Hospital. 

On most Saturdays, one had a choice of protest marches or rallies to attend and shout for the ‘proletariat’ in the company of other workers and students.

At that time too, a voice was often heard in Cork courts, defending the human dignity and civil rights of poor and rich alike, of all religious and political persuasions and of none — the voice of Gerald Goldberg.

As every Corkonian knows, he was the long-time leader of the Jewish community in Cork who died aged 91 in 2003. He had a distinguished legal career and became the first Jewish lord mayor of the city in 1977 and received an honorary law doctorate from UCC.

After coming out of a shop in the city a few weeks ago, a great crowd came down St Patrick’s St towards me carrying banners and flags and chanting slogans. 

How great it is to live in the West, I thought — and in Cork. People can protest peacefully, free to make their voices heard for those who are silenced by prison bars, bombs, and bullets and to show solidarity with those oppressed.

After he died, some of Goldberg’s books came up for auction. Those I bought have his personal library stamp, in Hebrew and in English: “Ex Libris Gerald Y. Goldberg — I Will Trust and Will Not Be Afraid”.

The most precious of his books for me is A Feast of History — The Drama of Passover through the Ages, a gift from his niece on his 60th birthday. 

It has the ritual in Hebrew and English, for a family celebration of the Passover Haggadah. For the first weeks I had it, little fragments used fall from its pages. It took me a while to realise they were crumbs of matzah, the unleavened bread broken and shared in the Seder service of the Jewish Passover.

I am proud to have spent some of my ‘apprentice days’ training as a carpenter in Cork where Gerald Yael Goldberg also ‘served his time’, walked, and prayed. 

After my marching days ended, I eventually found and followed the footprints of a Palestinian-Jewish woodworker. There is a time for everything.

The words of Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly in Stormont show how a new way forward is possible when people trust and are not afraid.

In the Holy Land, an immediate ceasefire is needed to enable all return home and rebuild their lives in peace.

When the job is reconciliation and building peace, everyone is an apprentice.

Reverend Peadar O’Callaghan, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork

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Generalising about old Catholic Ireland

Suzanne Harrington’s article on the tragic case of Ann Lovett ( Irish Examiner, February 5) is yet another example of lazy sweeping journalism about a predominantly Catholic Ireland of the past.

There is certainly a lot of truth in the assertions that the Catholic Church had too much power and influence in ‘old Ireland’ but the situation was more complex.

You would never think from these articles that the Unmarried Mothers Allowance was brought in during 1973, 11 years before the death of Ann Lovett.

It was very meagre, but a sign attitudes were already changing then. Or that the Status of Children Act, abolishing illegitimacy, was enacted as far back as 1987?

I lived in Britain for most of the 80s and the Irish Post newspaper naturally reported extensively on the then high emigration from Ireland. It was obvious the main reason was not Catholic repression but the dire lack of jobs at the time.

It was not unique to predominantly Catholic countries to treat unmarried mothers badly. I bore a child outside of marriage in 1989 in a small Irish town, and certainly encountered intolerant and moralistic attitudes but the vast majority of people were kind and understanding. The writers of these articles seem to forget another, more laudable, Irish attitude: “These things happen, you are only human.”

Suzanne Harrington said that the mother of Ann Lovett never spoke of the horrendous deaths of her daughters. People react in different ways to bereavements and traumatic experiences; some find it helpful to talk, others do not. It is impossible to know the reason in the case of Mrs Lovett.

As for the absurd statement that colonisation by Rome was far worse than colonisation by Britain, did the Catholic Church butcher people like Cromwell did, or wash their hands of over a million famine deaths? And did not the treatment of the Irish by Britain have a profound effect on the Irish psyche?

Judy Peddle, Charleville, Co Cork

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Wallet the real cure for hospital food

After being in and out of public and private hospitals for the past eight years, I’ve come to the conclusion that public hospital food is terrible because they want you to go, and private hospital food is all right because they want you to stay.

Kevin Devitte, Westport, Co Mayo

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GAA falls between two sporting stools

Dónal Óg Cusack said on The Sunday Game last Sunday that a proper plan needs to be drawn up to develop hurling nationwide. No plan will work until the re-organisation of the game takes place. 

What is needed is a single organisation that promotes hurling solely. The FAI runs soccer, the IRFU runs rugby. All other sports are similarly controlled by one organisation. The GAA is the big exception, controlling two major sports, hurling and Gaelic football. 

It’s no wonder then, that hurling in particular is not promoted in counties where Gaelic football is the preferred sport and vice-versa. No amount of planning will succeed until this necessary change takes place first of all.

Cyril Gleeson, Birdhill, Co Tipperary

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Pro-Israel Biden not fit for ‘Free World’

On Newstalk radio on February 3 , I heard an Irish County Councillor refer to Joe Biden as the president of ‘The Free World’.

Even if that imaginary ‘Free World’ ever had an equally imaginary president, that person would surely not be a man who currently plays a pivotal role in the ongoing Israeli massacre in Gaza.

Charles Hayes, Midleton, Co Cork

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Are lives of Gaza children worthless?

On January 29, a six-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Hamadeh, and her family were fired on by Israeli forces in Gaza city, with six of her family members killed. Her 15-year-old sister, Layan, phoned the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to call for help, describing how their car was surrounded by Israeli tanks and was being shot at. Layan was shot and killed during the call. When the PRCS called back they spoke to six-year-old Hind who, under gunfire, trapped in the car with the bodies of her family, pleaded for help, saying: “I’m afraid of the dark.”

The PRCS sent two members of their emergency medical team, Yousef Zaino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, to rescue Hind but, as of February 5, their fate and that of Hind remains unknown.

If Hind was not a child from Gaza, her story would likely be international front page news, with campaigns for her rescue/safety. However, it seems she is another Palestinian child whose life is deemed less worthy by the so-called international community. Another child who may die in fear and pain like the at least 11,500 children murdered by Israel in Gaza since October 7. Are some little girls and boys more equal than others? What an utter stain on humanity.

The International Court of Justice, the world’s highest court, has said it is plausible that the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza. In this light, Israel should be excluded from all international competitions and bodies, such as Uefa, Fifa, Fiba, Eurovision; this week’s Basketball Ireland fixture should be cancelled to respect the Palestinian call for a boycott.

Further, it is long past time the Irish government took meaningful action to sanction Israel for its crimes, that this war on Gaza is ended, and that Palestinian children, men and women can live in safety and freedom. Let there be no more stories like Hind’s.

Zoë Lawlor, Chairperson, Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) 35 North Lotts, Dublin 1

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Sinn Féin’s vision is an elusive dream

Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Féin has been appointed first minister of a British parliament in Northern Ireland and, somehow, the Shinners attempt to turn this into some kind of nationalist victory.

But it’s just another false dawn along their road to a glorious yet forever elusive 32-county socialist republic that will never happen. Sectarian division rules in Northern Ireland; not the political peace we enjoy in the ‘Free State’.

Let’s leave everything as it is, because republican unity in Ireland is always simply a call to rebellion from one faction or another. Diehard dinosaurs see no end to the improbable or even the impossible dream. The constant pursuit of the ‘rights’ of men and women nearly always makes life a tiresome endurance test. Relax.

Robert Sullivan, Bantry, Co Cork